U.S. researcher touts cleaner oilsands extraction process

Mark Iype, Postmedia News03.20.2011

A new oil extraction method that could be used in Alberta’s oilsands and would eliminate the need for the environmentally hazardous tailings ponds responsible for the deaths of hundreds of ducks in the last few years has been developed by U.S. researchers.

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A new oil extraction method that could be used in Alberta’s oilsands and would eliminate the need for the environmentally hazardous tailings ponds responsible for the deaths of hundreds of ducks in the last few years has been developed by U.S. researchers.

Scientists at Penn State University say their closed system using ionic liquids — salt in a liquid state — to separate the heavy, viscous oil found in Western Canada from sand uses less energy than current systems and does not create toxic waste water.

“Our process could potentially get rid of those waste water ponds which can be dangerous to the environment, especially the wildlife in the area,” said Paul Painter, the head of the project and a professor of polymer science. “And we think it could potentially be cheaper than the way they extract the oil now.”

Painter said Sunday he was motivated to develop his technique after reading about the deaths of 1,600 ducks in a Syncrude tailings pond in Alberta in 2008.

The photographs of oil-coated ducks have become a lasting image of Canada’s oilsands industry, and have prompted calls from environmental groups and politicians in Canada and abroad to boycott the Canadian oil.

Although not yet tested on a commercial scale, Painter said his method could eliminate the need for tailings ponds and could extract the oil cheaper than traditional techniques.

Oilsands are a combination of clay, sand, water and bitumen — a heavy black viscous form of oil. The sand needs to be mined and then the oil needs to be separated to make it a commercially viable product.

Traditionally, hot water is added to the sand, and the resulting slurry is piped to an extraction plant. The combination of hot water and agitation releases the bitumen from the oil sand, where it can then be skimmed off.

Roughly 75 per cent of the bitumen can be recovered from the sand with the traditional methods, according to Painter, a figure he said his system can vastly improve.

“We can reclaim more than 90 per cent of the oil using our method, something I think would be very appealing to the big companies,” he said. “Plus we can do it without the waste that is currently produced.”

Painter’s technique basically uses ionic liquids — a type of charged solvent — in the place of water as a way to facilitate separation between the oil and the sand. As an added bonus, the separation takes place at room temperature without the generation of waste process water.

“Essentially, all of the bitumen is recovered in a very clean form, without any contamination from the ionic liquids,” Painter said. “And because the bitumen, the solvents and the sand separate into three distinct phases, each can be removed separately and the solvent can be reused."

Painter said his team was in contact with Syncrude about a year ago, but “they didn’t seem all that interested in what we were doing.”

“They probably hear all the time that somebody has a better way of getting the oil out,” he said. “But I think we might be on to something.”

Syncrude did not respond to calls for comment.

Painter’s process has also been used to extract oil and tar from beach sand after oil spills such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

Unlike other methods of cleanup, Painter’s technique completely removes the oil, and the cleaned sand can be returned to the beach, he said.

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